בס "ד

This blog post is a summary of a powerful lesson on parshat Haazinu. It’s definitely worth watching the full lesson on YouTube for a deeper insight. Here, we share some key ideas and practical lessons on how we can use our speech in daily life to build rather than break.

In the Image of G-d: Humanity’s Universal Calling

“Beloved is man, for he was created in the image.” — Rabbi Akiva (Pirkei Avot 3:14)

The Beginning: Humanity, Not Nation

The Torah begins not with a people but with a person.

Unter Bereishit (Genesis 1:26–27) we read:

“And G-d said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’

And G-d created man in His image; in the image of G-d He created him; male and female He created them.”

Later, in Parashat Noach (Genesis 9:6):

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of G-d He made man.”

Before covenant, there was Gewissen.

Before Sinai, there was derech eretz — the path of moral awareness.

A Mirror of Conscience

If you were to stand before a mirror that reflected not your face but your conscience — what would you see?

Would you recognize there the image of G-d?

Rabbi Akiva’s words — “Beloved is man, for he was created in the image” — remind us that the tzelem Elohim, the divine image, is not a Jewish privilege but a human destiny.

Every person bears that imprint and therefore carries a sacred obligation to do the Creator’s will.

Being Yourself — But Which Self?

Modern culture praises authenticity: “Be yourself.”

But rarely does it ask, Which self deserves to be expressed?

The Torah’s opening chapters give us a different message.

Humanity is not a random accident of evolution — we were created b’tzelem Elohim.

Yet G-d has no form, no body, no shape. 

So what does it mean to be made “in His image”?

It means that within every human being lies a spark of divine reason, conscience, and creativity.

To live without awareness of this truth is to confuse freedom with emptiness.

“Being created in G-d’s image is not a compliment; it’s a calling.”

Dignity and Obligation

Rashi explains that since man is beloved, it is therefore incumbent upon him to fulfill G-d’s will.

Dignity and obligation are inseparable.

To be created b’tzelem Elohim means to be charged with representing divine morality in the world.

Die Tiferet Yisrael (Rabbi Yisrael Lifschitz) — in his commentary on Pirkei Avot — beautifully expands this.

By quoting Genesis 9:6, which applies to all humanity, he teaches that tzelem Elohim is universal, not covenantal.

All of humankind bears the divine image.

Law and Moral Awakening

Maimonides (Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 8:10) writes that Moses was commanded to ensure that all nations accept the Seven Noahide Laws.

Die Tiferet Yisrael sees Rabbi Akiva’s words as the moral counterpart to this legal duty.

He asks: If the Torah permits compulsion to uphold divine law,

“How much more must persuasion through words of love be employed to awaken the hearts of all humanity to their divine origin?”

Rabbi Lifschitz thus turns coercion into compassion — inviting humanity not to obey out of fear, but to awaken out of love.

Image and Likeness

Die Tiferet Yisrael distinguishes between two expressions:

Every person is created b’tzelem — with divine potential.
But only one who acts with conscience, because G-d commanded it, truly embodies tzelem Elohim.

Thus, Genesis 9:6 — “for in the image of G-d He made man” — speaks not of what we already are, but of what we are called to become.

A Potato, an Explorer, and Divine Curiosity

In a remarkable historical note, written in the early 1600s, the Tiferet Yisrael mentions the English explorer Sir Francis Drake.

He records that the king of England sent Drake to sail around the world, and he returned with a plant previously unknown in Europe — the bata, or potato.

To Rabbi Lifschitz, this was not a symbol of indulgence, but of intellect.

Human ingenuity — even discovering a new food source — testified to the divine wisdom embedded in humanity.

Such curiosity, he writes, reflects the Creator’s own intention that the earth “be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18).

Exploration, when guided by curiosity and reverence, is sanctified discovery — the intellect serving divine purpose.

The Healer: Compassion in the Image of G-d

Centuries later, another Englishman, Edward Jenner, discovered vaccination and saved millions of lives.

Though he lived long after the Tiferet Yisrael, later editors noted his work as a modern fulfillment of the same idea.

Drake and Jenner represent two facets of tzelem Elohim:

Both embody humanity’s partnership with G-d — extending divine wisdom into the physical world, for the benefit of all.

A World United by Values

When humanity acts justly, guards life, and acknowledges G-d’s sovereignty, it transforms potential into actuality.

It fulfills creation’s deepest purpose: that human reason should lead to the knowledge of G-d.

Today, nations are divided by flags and frontiers. Institutions seek to unite us, but often fail.

Yet imagine a world bound not by power but by Werte — by the awareness that every human being carries the image of the Divine.

Love, Accountability, and the Two Loves

“Beloved is man,” says Rabbi Akiva — yet this love also rebukes.

To be created in G-d’s image means to be accountable to that image.

To harm, degrade, or deny moral truth is to deface the likeness of G-d.

And yet, divine love endures.

The Mishnah continues: “Beloved are Israel,” who are called children of the Omnipresent and were given the precious vessel — the Torah.

But that second love was preceded by the first, universal one: Beloved is man.
This is the bridge that joins all of creation to its Creator.

The Torah of Humanity

Before the Torah of Israel came the Torah of Humanity — the moral law written in the human heart.

To live b’tzelem Elohim is to think with clarity, choose with reverence, and act with compassion.

Every time a person does good because it is G-d’s will, he fulfills the purpose for which Adam was formed.

From the voyager who mapped the unknown to the healer who cured the incurable,

from the potato that fed nations to the moral act that preserves life —

each reflects the Creator who brings order out of chaos, and light out of darkness.

Living the Likeness

“The image of G-d is not a mystery to be solved,

but a likeness to be lived.”

May we be blessed to remember that truth — and to live each day in a way that reveals the divine image within us all.

Von Rabbiner Tani Burton

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